Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Park

Unfortunately, rideshare was not an option. The youth hostel is fully booked with 150 people, but unfortunately only children. No potential passengers. I leave most of my things at the hostel and head south. First destination: Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park. These are not the tallest trees in the world, but they are the biggest. After 200 miles, the road slowly climbs through citrus groves into the Sierra Nevada. It gets hotter and drier, despite the altitude.

Even the first trees knock me off my feet – leaning my head back too far at over 2000 metres makes me dizzy.
The diameter of the thickest trees is 12 metres. Someone has got something mixed up: The related redwoods are grey, whereas the up to 60cm thick bark of the sequoias is red. I drive on through the vast park and cross over into Kings Canyon. Up to 2400 m, down to 600 m. In the evening, I have climbed up and down Mount Everest in terms of altitude metres.

I spent the whole day looking for Sequoia seeds. However, they hang in the treetops at an altitude of 80 metres for up to 20 years and are therefore rarely found on the ground. I’m lucky in the evening. Under a giant I find a few cones that have not yet been plundered by a squirel. A small indoor Sequoia like this would be nice… By the way: Sequoias are like Amis. They don’t die of old age. They grow big and fat until they eventually collapse under their own weight.

It takes me ages to get to Fresno. I don’t arrive until around 9 pm. It was an absolutely stupid idea to leave the laptop in San Francisco. It takes me an hour to find out that there is no hostel here. Another hour to find a reasonably cheap hotel. Then three quarters of an hour to get lost on the way to a pizzeria and then find my way home hungry again. The tyres are howling loudly that it’s not their fault. I’m really frustrated. My dinner: A can of Pepsi and water ice.